From Middle East Eye:
Lebanon’s Hezbollah confirmed on Saturday that its leader, Hassan Nasrallah, was killed after Israel launched a series of air strikes on the Lebanese capital, Beirut, a day earlier.
In an assassination that risks triggering all-out war in a region already on the brink, Israeli fighter jets dropped approximately 10 bunker-busting bombs on residential buildings in Beirut’s southern suburbs, an area colloquially known as Dahiyeh, on Friday.
Footage seen by Middle East Eye showed thick plumes of smoke rising from the blast site.
The Israeli military immediately confirmed it was behind the strikes and initially claimed it targeted Hezbollah’s command centre. Later, Israeli media reported that Nasrallah, 64, was the intended target of the strikes, but did not confirm his death.
On Saturday, the Israeli army posted a message on X, saying: “Hassan Nasrallah will no longer be able to terrorise the world.”
The Arabic spokesman of the Israeli army, Avichay Adraee, also said in a statement on X that Nasrallah was killed alongside Ali Karki, the commander of Hezbollah’s southern front, as well as a number of other commanders.
“The message is clear: we will reach everyone who threatens the citizens of Israel in the north, in the south and on more distant fronts.”
Later, Hezbollah said in a statement: “His eminence, the master of resistance, the righteous servant, has passed away to be with his lord who is pleased with him as a great martyr.
“The leadership of Hezbollah pledges… to continue its jihad in confronting the enemy [Israel], supporting Gaza and Palestine and defending Lebanon and its steadfast and honourable people.”
The statement did not mention who would succeed Nasrallah or how the group would respond to the assassination of its long-time leader.
According to analysts, the man widely regarded as Nasrallah’s heir, Hashem Safieddine, was still alive after Friday’s attack.
Safieddine, who oversees Hezbollah’s political affairs and sits on the group’s Jihad Council, is a cousin of Nasrallah. Like Nasrallah, he is a cleric and descendant of the Prophet Muhammad.
The US State Department designated Safieddine a terrorist in 2017, and in June, he threatened a big escalation against Israel after the killing of another Hezbollah commander.
Here’s late Hezbollah leader, Hassan Nasrallah, laying out his party’s vision for one democratic Palestinian state where Muslims, Jews, and Christians live in peace. “Any other solution would simply not be viable.” pic.twitter.com/XUIPRqKbwJ
— red. (@redstreamnet) September 28, 2024
On Sunday, the President of the Palestinian National Council, Rawhi Fattouh, mourned, on behalf of the Council, the Secretary-General of the Lebanese Hezbollah, Sheikh Hassan Nasrallah and his companions who were killed in the heinous assassination crime carried out by the Israeli occupation forces.
Fattouh said in a statement issued by the National Council on Saturday evening, “This heinous crime that targeted the martyr Nasrallah and his companions is considered a continuation of the aggressive policies of the Israeli occupation, and a desperate attempt to impose its hegemony over the region through bloodshed and cowardly assassinations.”
Fattouh held the Israeli occupation fully responsible for this crime and other crimes targeting the leaders and sons of the Arab and Islamic nations.
